Diane Maher, president and chief strategy officer of DP Fox Ventures LLC and president and chief operating officer of Fox Motors, was recently named the 2025 Barbara Cox Woman of the Year.

The Barbara Cox Woman of the Year Award was established in 2005 after the late Barbara Cox, a business pioneer who was an owner and director of Cox Enterprises – Cox Automotive’s parent company.

Maher has been with DP Fox Ventures for over 25 years and has played a central role in growing its automotive retail business. Along the way, she has accumulated valuable knowledge and insights about successfully operating a growing dealership group.

But she started out knowing very little about automotive retail.

Fox Motors operates in 43 automotive and powersports locations in Michigan, encompassing 51 brands. The DeVos family acquired its first dealership, a Saab franchise in Grand Rapids, in 2000. Maher has been with the group from its inception.

She was chief financial officer of DP Fox Ventures and helped with the acquisition. Dan DeVos “wanted me to be in charge of the car business,” Maher says. “I didn’t know anything and had to figure it out on the fly. Then we started acquiring two to three dealerships a year.”

Digitalization Issues

One of the most significant changes in auto retail since she entered it 25 years ago has been the move to digital. It may seem like the industry is moving quickly to digitalize, but Maher is a bit frustrated with the process, especially the ability to conduct an entire transaction online.

 “I would have expected a long time ago that we would have been a lot farther along than we are,” she tells WardsAuto.

Fox Motors works closely with companies such as Cox in trying out various software tools, but at least in Michigan, which still requires a wet signature on some documents, “to do a whole deal online without paper doesn’t happen yet,” Maher says, adding hopefully, “I think this is the year they will figure it out.”

If she could ask for one tool that would improve Fox Motors’ business, it would be something that allows the dealerships’ disparate software to talk to each other and allow an entire transaction to be conducted online, she says.

Looking Outside to Figure Out AI Tools

Fox Motors has many tenured employees and generally promotes from within for executive positions, but the onslaught of digitalization prompted her to look outside for help, Maher says.

Eighteen months ago, she hired a chief information officer to help choose and implement the best software tools. Maher says she was tired of investing in software that didn’t work how it was supposed to.

“I wanted someone who knew what they were doing, especially with all the AI tools coming out,” Maher says.

The CIO assesses software to make sure it works. When a software program is selected, he visits all the dealerships and explains why the tool was chosen and how it will help the dealership.

She mentions two in particular–

 Fox Motors tested Numa’s AI-powered customer interaction software and is now rolling it out in batches of five at all its dealerships, Maher says. It is also using Impel, an AI-powered customer lifecycle management tool.

“Both have been tested and are screaming successes,” she says.

“We’re Much Better at the Car Business Than Anything Else”

Maher wears two hats. She runs Fox Motors and she is president and chief strategy officer of DP Fox Ventures LLC. The diversified management company includes transportation, sports and entertainment, fashion and retail and resort management and real estate.

Maher gives a lot of credit to her staff, “a lot of really good people who have been with us for a super long time.”

While she does draw some lessons from the other businesses in running Fox Motors x – for example, the sports business is very good at marketing– “a lot of the programs we put in place at Fox Motors are ahead of our other businesses. We are much better at the car business than anything else.”

Fox Motors’ profits, like many auto groups, were down last year, mainly due to the cost of people and high inventory interest costs, Maher says.

The group took a hiatus from adding new dealerships and used profits to pay down debt from previous acquisitions, “putting ourselves in a condition to this year really improve our financial condition,” she says.

Maher is optimistic about the retail auto market in 2025. Earnings are normalizing, inventory has recovered and margins are leveling out.

“This year will be a lot better as far as profit,” she says.

Aligned With Barbara Cox

Steve Rowley, president of Cox Automotive, calls Barbara Cox “a true pioneer – an entrepreneur, philanthropist and advocate for women in business,” and says Maher “embodies that same spirit.”

Reflecting on what it means to be the Barbara Cox Woman of the Year, Maher says learning more about Barbara Cox’s life makes her feel very connected to Cox.

“She was way ahead of her time in a car business back when no women were in the car business,” Maher says.